Encryption in the Cloud: BoxCryptor

I have been looking for an easy and affordable way to encrypt my electronic documents stored in the cloud.  My preferred cloud storage options at this time are either Microsoft SkyDrive or Dropbox.  However, neither provide me with complete assurance that their existing security adequately protects documents that I want to keep completely confidential.

After trying Viivo (formerly SecretSync) I found that the use of the product was not intuitive for me.  Continuing my search, I downloaded BoxCryptor to see if it would work for me.  The download and initial installation was easy.  When opening the program for the first time, I was given a choice to associate BoxCryptor with Dropbox, SkyDrive and other.  There was supposed to be an option for Google Drive, but it remained grayed out and would not work.

For me, the association to SkyDrive was easy.  After making a new BoxCryptor drive on the hard-drive, I was taken to the Getting Started File to ensure that the initial use was easy.  And, BoxCryptor did make it easy to start.  I started saving documents to the BoxCryptor drive and found an encrypted copy on my SkyDrive.  I can now access the encrypted file on each computer with BoxCryptor installed.

I was disappointed to find out that I could not access the encrypted files on my iPad.  Although BoxCryptor has an iPhone/iPad app that is integrated with Dropbox, there is no iPad application that allows me to decrypt SkyDrive documents on my iPad.  Given the growing importance of being able to access documents on iPads, I thought that BoxCryptor should have clarified up front that there was no iOS support for the SkyDrive.  In viewing the support page to see if this issue was being addressed, BoxCryptor made it clear that it had no immediate plans to extend its iOS support beyond Dropbox to include  SkyDrive, Google Drive or other cloud options.

This product looks like a winner for those using Dropbox, but others need to look carefully at their options if they also want to view the documents on an iPad or other mobile device.

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